Mortal Kombat: A New Future
by Jaykid1
Summary: AU. Shao Kahn gained ultimate power and was about to claim all the realms as his own until Raiden in a last ditch effort sent a warning message to his younger self at the Mortal Kombat Tournament that started this whole altercation. At least, that was the plan. Raiden accidently sent his memories back a month further. Would this mistake save the realms, or cause a worst outcome?
1. Awakening

**Hey guys, Jaykid1 here. I felt I had to write this when I saw the lack of Taven Fan-Fictions. I don't know why people don't appreciate him, Taven is one of the most powerful characters in Mortal Kombat, I know this because it says so on the Wiki. I mean he's basically a god version of Liu Kang, just more badass and minus being Raidens tool. I think thou, we can expect to see him in Mortal Kombat 11 whenever that comes out.**

**So this story takes place in MK:9, more specifically about a month before the tournament. I hope you guys enjoy.**

**There isn't a whole lot known about Taven and his personality was rather vague in Armageddon so if he seems OOC, well, I'm doing the best I can.**

-000-

It had been foretold centuries ago that Armageddon would come to the Realms. The cause of the destruction was the numerous combatants that gained powers and continued to fight. The Elder Gods took measures to try and prevent this from happening, but alas, the Elder Gods unknowingly brought the Armageddon to fruition with their measures.

The many combatants battled each other to get the power that the Elder Gods had produced. Shao Khan was the victor and claimed the godlike power as his own. THe only one left alive to oppose him was Raiden, but sadly Raiden was weakened from the previous fights and was mercilessly being beaten by Kahn. In a last ditch effort to prevent this disaster, gathered pieces of his broken Medallion and chanted a spell to send a message to his younger self at the Mortal Kombat tournament that started this. However, Raiden added a tad to much power and sent the message further back than he intended.

-000-

Raiden had just left the Wu Shi Academy after they chose their champion to fight in the tournament. The thunder god would admit that he was proud that Liu Kang was chosen. He thought as the man as his own son. Raiden was about to see if he could find more combatants when he suddenly stiffened.

Images slammed into him. As fast as they were coming, he managed to make out a few things. One of which was his message to himself. _'He must win. Who was I talking about. By the looks of things that message came from pretty far in the future.'_ Raiden thought. There was something else he noticed in the visions, or rather, someone else. _'Taven, I haven't seen him in centuries, not since his father sealed him and his brother away. But why would I fight him?'_ Raiden thought. _'Something horrible must happen in the future. Perhaps I should find him now. With his power as a half-god, we'd have a much better chance at winning. Question is, where is he?'_ He thought as he teleported away to try and find the man in his visions. He'd ask his parents but they had been killed by an unknown assailant centuries ago.

-000-

It had taken three weeks, three long weeks for Raiden to get an inkling of where Taven was sealed away. And he only got that inkling when he came across a blind swordsman named Kenshi who somehow knew where Taven was sealed away. What disturbed him was that Taven's brother Daegon, who was sealed away as well was apparently freed and had been for quite some time. Finding the mountain where Kenshi said Taven was. Sensing a hollow point in the mountain, Raiden used his lightning to carve an opening in the mountain and entered. Surprisingly the cavern was lit up instead of dark like he was expecting, of course that could have been due to either the lava in the room, the gold flames that were scattered around the cavern, or the giant golden dragon that was coiled around a rock column.

**"Lord Raiden? What are you doing here?"** The dragon asked.

"Orin, I have come to free Taven. I believe he will be a great asset in the upcoming Mortal Kombat tournament." Raiden said.

**"Hmmm, I was instructed by Delia not to release Taven until I received a signal. Why should I awaken him now?"**

Raiden sighed. He wanted to tell as few people as possible but he felt he needed Taven. "I received a vision from the future me about Armageddon. In the vision, Shao Khan somehow received immense power. I believe having Taven awakened earlier then whenever he was before may prevent this from happening." He said.

_**'So lady Delia's plan failed. It seems I have no choice.'**_ Orin thought. **"Very well Raiden. I shall awaken Taven."** Orin said as his eye's glowed a brighter gold. Suddenly the cavern began to shake. A large rock structure began to crack before it burst open and a man fell out of it. Raiden quickly moved to the man's side.

The man was young, tall and heavily muscled with dark hair and a goatee wearing an all black outfit with dark armguards and golden accents, including a golden three piece necklace and a golden sigil of a dragon on his back. The most notable about the man however was the Dragon tattoo on the right side of his face. As soon as the man stood and took a deep breath, the fire in the room seemed to expand and contract along with his breath. "Taven, are you alright?" Raiden asked as he helped the man to his feet.

Taven groaned as he felt his senses come back to him. Opening his orange eyes, he blinked a couple times before he looked up at Raiden. "R-Raiden? What are you doing here? What's going on?" Taven asked, his voice rough and scratchy from non-use.

"Taven, your parents sealed you away for centuries. What their reason's were I do not know, but I have had you freed earlier as I need your help." Raiden informed the demi-god.

Taven's strength had returned to the point that he was now standing on his own. "My help? With what, what has happened while I was asleep?" He asked before he finally noticed the dragon. "Orin? What are you doing here?"

**"There is much we have to discuss Taven."** The dragon said.

Taven looked back and forth between the thunder god and the golden dragon. "Well, best start from the beginning." Raiden and Orin began to inform Taven of what has occurred while he was 'sleeping'. First Orin explained the reason behind Taven's forced hibernation, then Raiden informed him of the changes through the centuries. Taven listened intently to both his allies, thou he found it hard to wrap his head around the death of his parents and who could blame him, his father was a God and his mother was a powerful Edenian sorceress. Finally, Raiden explained the reason behind his search for him. "So you wish for me to participate in this Mortal Kombat tournament?"

Raiden nodded. "Indeed Taven, with your help, I believe with your help that Earthrealm may prevail and prevent Shao Khan from merging the realms."

Taven nodded. "If you think I can be of help Raiden, I will gladly lend a hand. Though I'm not sure how much use I'll be right now, I feel I'm a bit sluggish." He admitted as he rolled his shoulders.

"I'll help try to get you back in fighting shape, I wish we had more time but the tournament starts in a week. We'll have to make due with that time." Raiden said as Taven agreed. "Come, the sky temple would be the best place to train." With that, Raiden disappeared in a flash of lightning with Taven following in a gout of flames.

-000-

**Well, that's chapter 1 of my story.**

**Started and done in one day, I impressed myself.**

**So one thing I need help with. I started a poll to decide who I should pair Taven with, there are only two choices. Kitana and Jade. Go to the poll and choose that lady.**

**This story will go to the MK9 storyline then I'll either continue into MKX or make that a sequel. **

**Speaking of MKX, I know Sonya and Johnny are divorced but I didn't know Johnny was the one who divorced Sonya, that surprised the hell out of me.**

**Anyway, you know the drill.**

**Read, Review, Favorite and Follow!**

**Ta Ta For Now!**


	2. The Tournament Begins

**Hey everyone. Jaykid1 here. So far so good. People are reading the story so that's good.**

**Regarding the Poll, Kitana won the majority vote 15 - 11. This actually works out better for what I have planned for MKX. Plus I came up with an interesting back story for the two. **

**We don't know exactly how long Taven was asleep, though looking at Daegon, who is the younger brother, he must have been sealed for a while as Daegon is shown to have physically aged and is now older than Taven. We do know that Taven was indeed a resident of Edenia, and as the son of a God you'd think he was part of Edenian nobility. Taven did however know who Shao Kahn was, even though we don't know when he invaded Edenia, so it's safe to say it was sometime before he was sealed away. We know Kitana was a baby when it happened which is why she thought Shao Kahn was her biological father. We also know that when she appears in the tournament she's at least ten thousand years old. Taven is half-God, half-Edenian so his age is impossible to tell. With all these gaps in the history, it is possible that they could have met before.**

**Now I mentioned MKX in the first chapter so I'm sure everyone figured out why I wanted a significant other for Taven. Following the MKX way, he and, based on the poll results, Kitana will have a child.**

**Now for those that know me, every story I make has a Character Bio that reminds me what I have planned. The thing I need to figure out now is if they should only have the one I planned for their child or two for another child. Let me know.**

**Now before I start the chapter, I want to kinda take a moment to gauge the power levels of the fighters without the bias of the game.**

**Now, apparently, despite how astronomically useless they are, the Elder Gods are the most powerful beings in the MK universe, that's something we can all agree with. Under them naturally would be the normal gods, a.k.a Raiden (despite how useless he is), Fujin and Argus. I'm gonna put Shinnok in this category because as a fallen Elder God, I feel his power was diminished to that of a normal god.**

**Now since the gods are suppose to be all powerful, it stands to reason that below them are the demigods, Taven, Daegon and Rain. Now it stands to reason that between the three of them, Taven and Daegon are the strongest of the three. While all three of the demigods in the MK universe all share the same father, Taven and Daegon's mother is a powerful flame sorceress while it can be assumed that Rain's mother is an average Edenian.**

**Under the Demigods are the Outworlders and Edenians. While Human like in appearance, both have a higher affinity for magic and have longer lives. In this category, I also count the Netherealmers, Orderrealmers and Chaosrealmers.**

**So that leaves the Earthrealmers. Now I'm not saying Earthrealmers are weaker as they can be just as strong, they have the weakest connection to magic. Though despite that, they can be as strong as edenians and outworlders.**

**I hope I explained it well enough. Anyway, on with the story.**

-000-

A week came and went fairly quickly. In that time Taven did the best he could do in such limited time to get his strength back. Raiden's sky temple proved an excellent place to regain his strength. Especially since the Sky Temple was home to the Jinsei, Earthrealm's life force. Something about the energy helped with Taven's regeneration. On top of the strange energy, training with Raiden's ally, Bo'Rai'Cho helped to awaken his sleeping muscles.

Sadly, the week of training was not enough for Taven to fully gain his strength back. Taven would have to regain the rest of his strength in the tournament during his matches, hopefully being in battle would get him back in shape. Raiden had left a couple days earlier to find more kombatants, leaving Taven with Bo'Rai'Cho to focus on training.

During his training, Taven's mind drifted several times to his past. He thought of the time he spent with his younger brother Daegon and the games they would play. Other times of his loving mother, Delia and the time she spent helping him control his power over fire. Often he thought of the time he spent with his father, Argus and how the man's wisdom shaped him into who and what he was today. But mostly, Taven thought of Kitana, the woman he loved.

Taven would admit that their first meeting wasn't the best. In fact, that was putting it mildly as they had tried to kill each other. She was the daughter of Shao Kahn and he was the son of Argus. Taven won the match due to his superior power and his experience. Not surprising, Taven had many centuries under his belt while Kitana was barely 100. Though he was within his right to kill her, Taven spared her life instead. He could tell Kitana wasn't evil, her eyes told him that much, she was more misguided than anything else.

After that day, the two continued to meet after that in secret. What started as grudging respect, turned to mutual camaraderie, which turned to an easy friendship, which eventually turned to love. It wasn't easy since they had to hide each other from their respective families, which got harder after she was assigned a bodyguard and Daegon started to get curious as to where he often disappeared to, but they somehow made it work. At least until he was put to sleep and sealed away. Taven had no way of knowing what happened to his lover and wasn't about to ask Raiden as the relationship was a secret for a reason.

With his week up, Taven bid farewell to Bo'Rai'Cho and teleported to the location Raiden gave him before he left. When Taven arrived to the island, he immediately felt some dark foreboding aura. Finding the entrance easily enough, Taven walked into the complex and immediately noticed all the kombatants inside. He didn't expect so many people, and it raised the question if all these fighters were fighting on Earthrealm's behalf. Taven easily found Raiden and stepped to his side. On his way, he caught the attention of three ninjas, one in blue, one in red and one in yellow. All three of them took notice of the dragon 'tattoo' on his face and narrowed their eyes.

Raiden turned to him when he sensed his approach. "Ah, Taven. Glad you could make it. This is Liu Kang." Raiden said, introducing the man on his right. The warrior looked him up and down before nodding to him. "Did you get your strength back?" Raiden inquired.

"Mostly, I'll have to gain the rest of it through the course of the tournament." Taven said.

Raiden nodded as monks began to file in and sat in a group. On the viewing platform, four individuals walked up, two males and two females. One of the males could be identified as a Tarkatan, from his razor sharp teeth and bladed arms. The other man was old, decrepit really, he looked to be skin covered bones, though there was something menacing about him. One of the females was dark skinned, wearing revealing green Edenian type battle gear with a green mask and her hair tied into a ponytail.

Taven did not notice any of those three as his attention was sorely on the last woman. She had tan skin and a blue, two piece version of the outfit the other woman had on with her long ebony hair cascading down her back with a fringe that slightly covered her left eye. Though he couldn't see her face due to her mask, Taven could tell by her body, that he use to spend hours mapping out, that it was Kitana. Seeing her made his heart leap for joy and constrict in pain. While it had only been a week to him, to her... it had been centuries. Gods, how she must've felt when he suddenly vanished.

Taven ignored what the old man was saying in favor of watching his old lover look over the Kombatants. She glanced over them all, sizing them up in her head. She got to Taven and barely spared him a glance and moved on before she tensed up and turned back to him and stared at him, disbelief shown in her eyes, along with joy, rage, heartache, betrayal and longing.

Taven saw the different emotions playthrough on her face and felt nothing but guilt at the misery she was forced to endure without him due to her father's hunger to conquer. Kitana had once called him her light in the dark, she no doubt felt he abandoned her for all those years.

Taven was brought from his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder and realized a match had ended and another was already starting. "Something wrong Taven?" Raiden asked.

Taven looked at Raiden before looking back at Kitana only to see her attention was elsewhere. "No, nothing's wrong." He said as he watched the match between the man in the blue suit and sunglasses and the Tarkatan. "He's good." Taven muttered, referring to the human.

Raiden nodded. "Indeed, he is."

Before long, the man that Taven learned was called Johnny Cage was standing victoriously over the Tarkatan known as Baraka. "Man I love those blades! My producer's got to meet you! We're doing 'Tommy Scissorfist', and..." Taven tuned out the rest of what the man was saying in favor of looking back to Kitana who was looking at him and immediately caught his eye. When everyone began to file out, Kitana's head twitched to the side, but Taven knew that was her signaling him to meet her somewhere else.

"If you'll excuse me." He said to Raiden as he walked off while Raiden and Liu Kang moved toward Johnny.

-000-

Taven found himself in some kind of hidden grotto. He thought he saw Kitana go this way but he must've been mistaken, Taven turned around and was instantly struck in the face by a hard slap that nearly knocked him over. Looking at his assaulter, he came face to face with Kitana. It seemed her emotions had settled on rage.

"You! How dare you show your face after all these years!" She yelled.

Taven rubbed the red mark on his face as he stood back to his full height. "I deserved that."

Kitana slapped him again on his other cheek. "Damn right you do! That and more! How dare you leave me like that, leave me to the horrors that come with being my father's daughter. You didn't even say goodbye, you just left. Did what we had mean nothing to you? Did I mean so little?" She asked sadness creeping in at that last sentence as she looked away, hiding her tears.

Taven sighed sadly and tentatively took her hands in his, gaining her attention. "I didn't leave of my own volition, I never would have left otherwise. My father called Daegon and I to his study and suddenly everything went black. I just woke up a week ago inside a cave and I most likely would have still been in there if Raiden hadn't released me." He said trying to get her to see reason. Kitana looked in his eyes and half-heartedly tried pulling away before Taven let go of her hands and grabbed her shoulders instead. "Kitana, I love you. You should know I'd never intentionally hurt you."

Kitana had tears in her eyes that she was trying to keep from falling but once the first one fell, the dam broke. She practically flung herself into Taven and buried her face into his chest as she wrapped her arms tightly around him, afraid he'd vanish if she let go. "I hate you... I hate you..." She whispered over and over into his chest. Taven held her just as tight, though he was taken aback by the words he heard her whispering, he figured he deserved them. Centuries of frustration that she was no doubt keeping bottled up was finally being flushed out of her system and considering the other way she could be getting them out was through bashing his face in, he much prefered this.

After awhile she calmed down and pulled back and look up at him. Her eyes were red and watery but they were much softer than before. Taven reached up and pulled off her mask, allowing him to see the rest of her beautiful face before he pulled her into a tender kiss. When they pulled apart, Taven lay his forehead against hers. "Am I forgiven?" He asked.

Kitana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, they were harder but not as much as when she first started yelling at him. "If something like this happens again, half-god or not, I'll hunt you down and kill you, understand?" She said.

Taven smirked. "Loud and clear."

After a moment of being in eachothers embrace, Kitana pulled away. "I must return before Jade comes looking for me. I have no doubt that you entered this tournament on behalf of Earthrealm, so I'll do what I can to help from this side. We'll speak again at a later date." She said as she replaced her mask and turned to walk away but paused for a moment and turned back to Taven. "I love you too." She added before leaving the grotto.

Taven smiled and sighed in relief. Though much had changed since his forced hibernation, he thankfully still had Kitana, who apparently still hated her father enough to defy him. Perhaps now she would be less hesitant to leave his side than she was in the past.

Taven's thoughts were interrupted when he heard his name being called. Turning around, he saw Raiden coming toward him followed by Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and two people, a man and a woman he did not know. "Taven, there you are. I would speak with all of you as you here. I do not believe you have yet met Sonya Blade and Jackson Briggs." Raiden introduced.

Sonya nodded to Taven while Jax held out his hand. "Call me Jax."

Taven took the man's hand and shook. "Taven." He replied before turning to Raiden. "What is it you need to speak with all of us about? Is it about your visions?"

Raiden nodded. "Yes." He said before addressing the others. "I have foreseen events, like memories of my future. They lead me to believe that you are all connected to Earthrealm's fate." He said.

"What have you foreseen?" Liu Kang asked.

"In my visions, Shao Kahn gains immense power and becomes invincible. He destroys all life on Earthrealm and we all die. I believe these flashes are a guide to defeating Shao Kahn. However messing with the flow of time can have consequences. I have already altered the timeline slightly by bringing Taven into the tournament, as he was not there the previous time." He explained.

"Hold on, what's so special about this guy that you brought him to the tournament this time around?" Johnny asked before turning to Taven. "No offense, but you look like a regular dude to me."

"Though he may look human to you, Taven is actually a half-god and naturally stronger than most of the fighters in the tournament." Raiden explained, much to the shock of the others.

"Really? That's cool. Do you shoot lighting like Raiden here?" Johnny asked excited.

Taven shook his head as he held up his right hand as a gold flame appeared in his palm. "No, I have control over fire." He said as he extinguished the flame.

"Sweet!" Johnny exclaimed.

"As I was saying. I believe one of you will be able to win the tournament and stop Outworld from merging with Earthrealm." Raiden said. "Can I count on all of you to save Earthrealm?"

The gathered Kombatants all looked at one another before looking at Raiden. "I don't see anyone looking for the exit. I'd say we're all game." Johnny Cage said.

Raiden nodded. "Very well. The fate of Earthrealm is up to all of you. For now the tournament must run it's course. You should all get some rest. The tournament will resume in the morning." With that, the Kombatants all headed to their quarters to rest and wait for the morrow.

-000-

**I think that's a good stopping place. The action will pick up next chapter. So already there are some notable changes to the timeline. Taven's presence has already altered Kitana's view on the tournament. What else will his being there change?**

**Anyway, I have a firm grasp of where I'm going with this story except for one thing that I need help with. Jax's arms. Should they be ripped off and replaced with robotic arms like in the alternate timeline or have bionic implants that he can take off like in the original timeline. Let me know in the comment section.**

**That's all for now.**

**Read, Review, Favorite and Follow.**

**TTFN!**


	3. Fire Vs Fire

**Hey everyone, Jaykid1 here with a new chapter of 'A New Future'. I was gonna work on something else but my brain is on a Mortal Kombat kick.**

**So I looked up the complete history of Mortal Kombat and I discovered that based on the timeline it would be impossible for Taven to have met Kitana as he and Daegon were sealed away sometime after the ONE BEING was split into the Kamidogu and used to create the realms. Daegon was apparently freed during Onaga the Dragon King's reign while Taven was freed Mileenia later during Onaga's return in deception. That being so, I'm tweaking the history a bit (well a lot) so that Taven and Daegon were born while Onaga was still in power and lived a for a few thousand years before they were sealed away. Daegon was awakened during Shao Khan's first attempt at Earthrealm during the first Mortal Kombat tournament and used a different Method to increase his age and his power before he created the Red Dragon Clan.**

**So, Scorpion's wife and child... in MK:X, they're referred to as Harumi and Satoshi, but in the comic, it's Kana and Jubei... Take from that what you will.**

**In other news... Damn, no love for Jax is there. Reviewers basically said fuck his arms. That's really fucked up guys.**

**BTW, for those that have read chapter 2, I added a few lines into Taven and Kitana's dialouge.**

**Now I feel I should mention that I do plan on including Daegon in this story as well. At this point in time, Taven does know Daegon is awake but he thinks Daegon was awakened only a little while before he was, not centuries before. For those unfamiliar with MK:9, it takes place over the course of Mortal Kombat's 1, 2 and 3 while MK:X starts out in 4 while replacing Deadly Alliance and Deception with the current story. Daegon will appear in 3, which I think is nearly a year after 1. (Has anyne who's play MK:9 noticed Daegon in the background of the arena pit stage fighting against Reiko?)**

**Regarding Taven's fighting style. Following MK:X style, I created three variations for him like the other fighters. I'll tell the first two since they appear in this chapter and I'll keep the third secret until later. Gold Dragon already sounded like a variation in which he'll mostly fight using hand to hand and one of the two I created is called Fire Fist where Taven is essentially a fire bender.**

**Scorpion will be in his Injustice armor as I rather enjoyed that one.**

**Before the Story begins, I need to know one thing. I can swing the story two ways. I can make Kitana a Revenant or not. And if I do, when do I do it. The same way it happened in MK:9 or sometime later after she and Taven have a child. (Decisions, Decisions.)**

**Got nothing else to add so on with the story.**

**BTW, I'm not doing that whole Round thing for each fight, that shit is annoying when not in the game. These fights are gonna be more realistic, like when someone goes down, their down, no round 2 bullshit.**

-000-

It had been a couple days since the tournament began. The structure of the tournament was explained early the next morning during breakfast. The mornings were basically for breakfast and light training from 8 am to 10. From there, the tournament would take place over the course of the day until Shang Tsung called for a break and would continue into the evening. So far Taven, along with some of his allies, had won a few matches with a few random kombatants fighting on Outworld's behalf whose names he hadn't bothered to remember.

Speaking of allies, Taven got to know his fellow Earthrealm defenders. Out of all of them, Jax was easily the one Taven got along with the most. Much like Taven, Jax was calm and clear-headed with an easy going personality that meshed well with Taven's. Jax was more physically imposing than even Taven himself and easily the most physically gifted fighter seen in the tournament so far, not to mention the man's fighting style was impressive. He moved pretty fast for a man his size. Added with his near super-human strength due to the enhancements on his arms, he was quite the formidable foe.

After Jax, Johnny Cage was the next in line as he and Taven struck up an easy friendship. Despite being a bit air-headed and superficial, Johnny was a powerful warrior, as shown on his first day. Taven figured if Johnny wasn't so cocky (and shut up once in awhile), he'd make it pretty far in the tournament. The thing about Johnny was that Taven felt he wasn't just a normal human with above average fighting skills. Taven sensed a dormant power inside Johnny that felt... almost similar to his own, godlike(1). He wondered if one of Johnny's relatives might've been an Edenian or possibly and Outworlder.

Next up was the sole female of the group, Sonya Blade. Taven wouldn't so much call them friends as he would say acquaintances. Sonya was stern, headstrong, prideful and stubborn. In Taven's opinion, those were very bad combinations to have in one person. Her revealing apparel caught him off guard as well as he was sure that wasn't standard military wear, and if it was, the military in Earthrealm was full of degenerates.

Then came Liu Kang; Liu Kang reminded Taven of Daegon. Unfortunately that wasn't the compliment it might've sounded like. Taven loved his little brother dearly but there were times Daegon was entirely too full of himself and arrogant. That was the part of Daegon Taven saw when he looked at Liu Kang and Taven wasn't a fan of it. Plus he didn't like the way he looked at Kitana, but that was a separate issue itself.

Though he wasn't one of Raiden's chosen ones, Taven also got along with another warrior who fought on Earthrealms behalf who called himself Nightwolf. The Shaman was kind and respectful man who utilized the spirits to fight. Taven caught one of Nightwolf's matches and he had to admit the man was formidable.

On a lighter note, he was slowly but surely regaining his strength. On top of that, Taven had a rather good night, what with Kitana sneaking into his quarters where they rekindled the flame of their love that had dimmed with his absence. Taven would admit that he had some smug satisfaction that despite the years he was gone, Kitana hadn't taken another lover. He was still her one and only and if he had anything to say about it, it would stay that way.

It was a new day now and the beginning of the days Tournament was on hand. All the Kombatants were in the courtyard, waiting for Shang Tsung to speak. "Kombatants! The next match will now begin!" Taven sensed the build up of heat from the center of the courtyard before a gout of flames appeared from the ground and a ninja dressed in black and yellow appeared out of the flames. "Scorpion! Specter of the Netherrealm! Resurrected by the sorcerer Quan-Chi!" Shang Tsung announced. "Who among you is worthy of this challenge?!"

Taven tuned out whatever the revenant was saying when he saw from the corner of his eye Raiden move to side of one of the guards. Normally a person wouldn't be able to hear what Raiden was saying, but Taven was half-god and had higher senses than others. "I know it is you Kung Lao. The Shaolin Monks chose Liu Kang to represent your order in this tournament." Taven heard Raiden say.

"I am Liu Kangs equal!" Came the responce.

"That remains to be seen." Was Raiden's nonchalant answer.

"Watch and see." The now named Kung Lao said as he stepped forward and removed his disguise. "I accept the challenge."

"He's going to lose." Taven muttered a few moments after seeing him.

Johnny, who was standing next to him, looked to him and asked. "How can you tell."

"He's not fighting to help us, he's fighting to show off, and I can immediately tell that Scorpion is not an opponent to take lightly." Taven said.

Sure enough, Kung Lao was soundly defeated by the vengeful wraith that was Scorpion. "Huh, you were right." Johnny said.

Taven didn't reply, more intent on focusing on Scorpion. His flames intrigued him. Taven had studied many different flames in his youth when his mother was teaching him and Daegon about magic, never before had he seen hell-fire. Taven watched closer to how he fought when Nightwolf was called forth. Nightwolf put up a great fight but was ultimately defeated and eliminated from the tournament.

As Nightwolf was being carried off to the infirmary, Taven stepped forth. "A new challenger?" Shang Tsung said quizzically while Kitana stood behind him looking slightly worried for her lover.

Scorpion sized up his new opponent. "You are not Sub-Zero."

"No, I am Taven. I am curious about your flames and wish to see how Hell-fire measures up against God-fire." He said as he got into a fighting stance.

**Variation: Gold Dragon**

"You'll regret challenging me." Scorpion said as he got in his own stance.

Seeing the Kombatants were ready, Shang Tsung began the match. As soon as the match started, the two fighters charged at one another. When they collided in the middle, they traded punches and blocked each others hits. Scorpion proved to be slightly faster and landed more hits but Taven was built to take punishment and dish out damage, which showed when he threw a punch that twirled Scorpion around and put him on his back.

Shaking out of his daze, Scorpion quickly hopped to his feet. "Impressive, you're stronger than you appear."

"As are you. But I suggest we end this warm up and truly begin the fight." Taven said as crossed his arms as he breathed in before he flung them to his side as he exhaled and suddenly burst into golden flames. He took a fighting stance as the flames moved to cover his arms.

**Variation: Fire Fist**

Scorpian sensing his opponent's seriousness, performed a very similar move and slipped into a ready stance of his own. What transpired next could be considered pure pandemonium. Scorpion and Taven charged one another and traded blows like two enemies hell bent on killing the other, the ferociousness of their battle made worst by the flames covering their bodies and spreading around the battle field. The two broke apart and commenced a fire fight by lobbing fire at the other, neither Kombatant noticing or rather choosing to ignore how the other was impervious to the others flame.

Seeing they were getting no where, the two fighter's formed fireballs in their hands and were about to charge the other until Shang Tsung began yelling. "ENOUGH! Stop this before you burn down my island!"

Both Kombatant's looked confused before they looked around. Sure enough, nearly everything was on fire. The surrounding spectators had fled the area and were hiding behind pillars. Some of the island guards were lying on the ground burnt to death and the trees were scorched. Taven actually looked sheepish. "Oops." Was his only reply.

-000-

1\. I say this because his green energy was able to allow him to defeat Shinnok... who is a god.

**This is short I know, but I need to get back into the swing of this story. Plus I need those question's answered so I know how to write the story.**

**So, I'll be ending this here...**

**Read, Review, Favorite and Follow!**

**TTFN!**


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